Category Archives: Campaigns

So, to start off the new year and the gift of a gaming table (and garage space so that games can stay set up), my interest in gaming has renewed dramatically. The kids are also remaining interested, as long as they get breaks at the end of each turn to go and play outside or on the computer.

The plan then is to work through a Planetary Empires Campaign (some minor rule adjustments may arise) representing the Campaign for the Zavijah system.

There are some vagaries of the game because of the inclusion of Mr 8 and Miss 6. For instance, they wouldn’t have the board set any way other than the big hill right in the middle and the generals swapped sides so many times I lost count. My son started with Chaos and my daughter marines – by the end they had both played each side and were together as Chaos with me in charge of the marines.

Background:

A local insurgency against the governor of Zavijah was growing out of control and help was sent for from the Imperium. Local Chaos cults mere spreading, but rumours of power armoured warriors joining the fray led to the emergency call.

The Imperium took years to answer, but the Eldar from the craftworld of Nido’fal offered their support, which the governor agreed to. After two years of fighting, the 3rd Company of the Blood Guard arrived to assist (while the strike fleet passed through to deal with a Tyranid incursion). The Blood Guard were unimpressed to find the local population allied with the Eldar, but pragmatism and the confirmed prescence of the True Order (suspect renegade chapter:origin unknown) led them to ignore the situation for the meantime with the intent on dealing with the alien infestation later. The Blood Guard set their own campaign areas away from the Eldar for the time being.

Something in the stories captured the interest of the Angels of Wrath, who dispatched a strike cruiser with a Ravenwing and Deathwing detachments under the command of their Master of the Ravenwing, Asam. The Angels of Wrath are hostile to all parties.

At the same time, the outlying elements of Splinter Fleet Scylla have been making attempts to land in the system. The have had minimal success so far, but there is a minor infestation on the planet that has been helped by a local genestealer hive.

Prologue:

The Angels of Wrath are attempting to establish a forward base on the planet, with the intent of interrogating the locals about the Chaos warriors. A small force under Company Master Zhaak attempts to draw out the Chaos forces to allow the beachhead to be established.

Master Zhaak walked slowly and patiently to the Inner Sanctum of Wrath’s Crusade. The corridors here were sparse compared to the finery that adorned the Bridge and the Imperial Navy command areas. The further into the Inner Sanctum the plainer things became – Zhaak idly mused once again about how much further in the Inner Circle there was to progress – after the century of service he occupied some of his meditation time with estimating how many more of the hidden ranks there were in front of him by observing the rate of removal of luxuries from the areas that he had gained access to already.

Grand Master Asam was in one of the outer rooms of the Sanctum, along with Interrogator-Chaplain Evar and Veteran Sergeants Haldith and Trundior. Asam was a prim, meticulous man, and the dark green robes of the Inner Order that he wore seemed to somehow add to that impression. “Are your men prepared?” he asked without pre-amble.

“I have been to devotions with them all.” Zhaak replied. “Chaplain Itrandor spoke on the Lies of the Traitors, so they should be in the frame of mind required.”

“Very good. Proceed with the utmost caution, and never forget the Primary Target.”

Campaign – Victor can decide the Angels of Wrath starting tile on main map.

Battle is Purge the Alien, with 1000 points per side.

Initial Deployment has the Angels of Wrath (right) with a tactical squad on each flank, the Ravenwing in the centre and the Deathwing in reserve. Company Master Zhaak is with the Squad in the foreground, and Lexicanium Raal is with the squad in the background in the crater. Zhaark received the Furious Charge rule as his warlord trait. Raal received Life Leech and Haemorrhage from the Biomancy school, though checking the codes later Dark Angels haven’t got Biomancy listed – though I picked it because the DV pack gives the librarian the primaris power from that school – odd.

The True order threw a rough line together with the four cultist squads dispersed relatively evenly. Lord Petturi and the Chosen are in the foreground, Petturi recieved the Lord of Terror trait. The Helbrute and the Obliterators are slightly to the far edge of the board. The Chaos Terminators also chose to stay in reserve to Deep Strike later.

The first turn saw the Angels of Wrath manoeuvre forwards, staying out of main range or using the hill for cover.

Chaos’s contribution to the first turn was to advance across the whole battlefield and to kill two marines from the crater with the Obliterators.

The Angels’ second turn saw five cultists annihilated by a plasma cannon, which broke the weak morale and they fled. On the other side the plasma cannon took out four chosen, with Lord Petturi saved by his Aura of Dark Glory. The two Ravenwing combat squads split on opposite sides of the hill, with the squad containing Sergeant Trundior (two grey bikes) charging into the close combat cultists killing five outright before catching the rest with a sweeping advance – First Blood to the Angels before a quick regroup,

Chaos responded by aiming the heavy fire power of the Helbrute and Obliterators at the second Ravenwing Combat Squad, wiping them off the board. The fleeing cultists took heart from this and regrouped.

End of Second Turn – Victory Points Score – Angels 3, Chaos 1.

On the third turn, the Ravenwing squad turbo-boosted across the board, ending up right in front of the helbrute and obliterators. The plasma cannon shots missed everything.

Chaos responded by shooting everything at the Ravenwing squad, but the Jink and Ravenwing re-roll saved them all.

On the fourth turn the Deathwing teleported to the Ravenwing homer, unleashing a round of autocannon fire that removed two hull points off the Helbrute with glancing hits. One tactical squad abandoned thier crater and made a run for the centre hill, while the squad in the forest missed with it’s cannon (again). The Ravenwing wiped out the remains of the cultist squad, earning another Victory Point.

Chaos responded with their own Terminator deep strike behind the crater, killing three marines. The helbrute and obliterators killed one biker.

The Ravenwing spun around behind the Helbrute, the Plasma gun tearing through the rear armour as the Terminator Autocannon scored another glancing hit. The Ravenwing continued on to assualt the next cultist squad, winning the combat but failing to make a sweeping advance. The tactical squad made it to the hill.

Chaos responded by melting two Terminators with Obliterator lascannons, while the fleeing cultists regrouped and the Chosen, Lord and remaining cultists advanced over the next hill.

The game ended at the end of the fifth turn.

Result

Scores – Chaos, 1 unit destroyed + Linebreaker: 2

Angels, 3 units destroyed + Linebreaker and First Blood: 5.

Interestingly, all the Angels’ points were scored by the one Ravenwing combat squad.

The Angels of Wrath now get their choice of starting tile, having distracted the Chaos forces sufficiently to establish their preferred foothold on the planet.

Veteran-Sergeant Trundior knelt in front of Grand Master Asam as Interrogator-Chaplain Evar recited the Litany of Repentance. Once completed, he stood to face the Grand Master, who handed him an intricately wrought miniature version of the censors carried by many Angels. Trundior bowed as he stood. “Come Brother,” Zhaak told him, “and hear the tale of the the Lion and the Knights of Lupus.”

Evar and Asam watched them leave. “He has done well” Asam said.

“Perhaps well enough to take your place one day.”

Asam considered that. “Maybe. He positively identified the secondary target amid all of his tactical prowess.”

Evar frowned. “It would be good to see the end of Petturi, but the primary target was not identified.”

Now that I’ve gotten a bit further through assembling the second Dark Vengeance box, I thought it was time to increase the complexity of the games a bit as well. It also meant that the kids could each control one ‘detachment’ of the Angels of Wrath (Dark Angels).

The lists were:

Chaos – Lord, Chosen, Helbrute, CC Cultists, Cultists (original box) reinforced by Terminators (converted), 2 Obliterators (red Terminators at this stage) as well as the two squads of cultists from the second box.

Dark Angels – Master, Librarian, Tactical Squad, Ravenwing Squad, Deathwing (original box) reinforced by a second Tactical Squad and a second Ravenwing Squad. My Daughter took command of the painted tact squad and ravenwing, along with the Master. My Son took charge of the Librarian and the unpainted tac and ravenwing squads. The assumed dual command of the terminators.

Angels of Wrath Deployment:

Chaos Deployment (with the Terminators in reserve):

First turn was mostly movement. My daughter’s bikes sped up the left flank towards the hill, while my son’s headed for the centre of the table and through the door of the ruins. The Chaos side advanced for cover mostly. My daughter then got in trouble for not brushing her hair…

Angels second turn: More infantry advance with the Ravenwing bolting for their targets. The (part) painted bikes on the left shot, then charged, then ran over the autogun cultist Sect. The unpainted Ravenwing in the centre of the ruins advanced again and took out one of the obliterators. Plasma cannon fire aimed at the Helbrute scattered instead to pick off a trio of CC cultists hiding behind the hill.

Chaos second turn: The Chosen and Chaos Lord charged the previously victorious bikes, shooting one biker off before the Lord challenged the Sergeant and killed him, gaining a Boon – originally spawnhood, but with the Warlord Trait of a re-roll saved himself with a boost to Deny the Witch. The next chosen finished off the third biker. The heavy weapons in the middle picked off the second Ravenwing sergeant.

Third turn: The lone remaining Ravenwing charged the cultists in the crater, making some headway in his turn. The rest of the Angels advanced towards the centre. In the Chaos turn, the chosen and Lord printed towards the ruin, the obliterator took out a Deathwing terminator and the cultists swarm finally outdid the last Ravenwing biker. Then the Terminators deep struck into the rear left of the Angels line (grey models), spattering fire into the back of the tactical squad.

Final Angels turn saw the Librarian detach himself to Smite the Chaos Terminators, killing one, the Plasma Cannon from the unpainted squad killed a second, the Deathwing killed a third and the painted Tactical Squad charged in and killed the fourth (with bolter butt after the Mark of Tzeentch saved them from the Master and Sergeants Power Swords).

This was when we had to call it a night, because dinner was ready and the battlefield needed to return to it’s normal purpose. Counting units destroyed (2 Angel vs 1 Chaos), both Warlords alive and first blood to the Angels we drew at 2-2. Here are the (almost) victorious commanders of the Angels:

There were three objectives, marked in blue on the map below. One is a teleporter beacon, the second is a set of generators, the third is a communications array inside an Aegis defence line. Marines rolled for deployment and got the left hand side of the diagram, where they promptly hid the scouts in cover and the marines behind the forest area (shown in the diagram as dark green and in the photos as a white area with plastic trees on it (I know, real good terrain..)

The Eldar guardians took up position inside the defence line around the communications station, with the pathfinders and the aspect warriors behind the large hills.

Passed reserve roll for Assault Marines! Marines did not scatter and landed right behind the pathfinders.

Tactical Squad advanced through cover.

Assault Marines fired on the Pathfinders, causing three casualties. Pathfinders lost their morale check and fled the table.

Tactical Marines shot at the Warp Spiders, causing two casualties.

Eldar:

Warp Spiders retreated out of sight of the marines.

Scorpions charged over the hill, all passing the dangerous terrain test to leap down the face, and into combat with the assault marines.

Guardians fired their Starcannon at the Tactical Marines and caused one casualty.

Scorpions used their 20 attacks to cause 6 wounds to the assault marines, resulting in two casualties. The Assault marines left in range were unable to cause a wound on the Scorpions. They failed their morale check and regrouped off the table.

Turn Three:

Tactical Marines burst through cover a massive 6”, followed by a series of controlled bolter shots which took out four Guardians. They backed this up with a heroic 11” charge to take the fight to the Guardians and contest the objective. While the Guardians did make a valiant attempt to snap fire, the volley of shuriken blades all whizzed by harmlessly as the power armoured bulk of the marines smashed into the Eldar. Higher initiative did nothing to the marines, who responded by smashing all three Guardians within reach to the infinity circuit. The rest faltered, and were caught while fleeing by the victorious marines. Squad Decursus quickly consolidated into the communications area, taking cover behind the aeigis lines and preparing for the Eldar counter-attack.

The Aspect warriors were quick to respond, with the scorpions racing around the back of the hill towards the marines, and the Warp Spiders moving into firing range. Strings of monofilament wire ripped through the air, engulfing the closest three marines, including the battle brother carrying the missile launcher. The scorpions made the most of the distraction, flying towards the marines to launch into combat. Mandible blasts, pistols and chainswords filled the air, but all of the hits were turned by the marines armour. Stunned by the ferocity of the attack, Squad Decursus managed to miss their opponents completely before the melee piled in.

Turn Four:

The melee continued with the marines armour saving three near-fatal blows, the scorpions made their single save before Decursus managed to miss hitting the marines on both has attacks.

The Eldar turn saw the marines armour succeed yet again and while the battle-brothers failed to cause any wounds Decursus finally found a mark with his power fist and took down two of the Scorpions. The Aspect warriors refused to budge though and stayed on for another round of combat.

Turn Five:

The scorpions finally managed to push their swords through the gaps in the marines armour, taking down two. Decursus though took every opportunity, bringing his fist to bear on another two warriors. In the end this round was a draw, which saw the combatants manage fight another woundless round during the Eldar turn.

Turn Six:

Decursus again shows why he is the senior sergeant of the company, smashing down the final scorpion. During the elder turn the Warp Spiders have a final attempt at cleaning out the marines, but the humans armour again saves them from all fire.

The game ends with the Marines holding one Objective. Bonus victory points to the Eldar for first blood and the Marines for linebreaking sees a narrow tactical win for the Marines, and the subsequent acquisition of the first tile in the war. The bloody skirmish over, only three warriors remain on each side.

The Battle for Blake V

A planetary empires based 40k in 40 mins campaign pitting a Space Marine force against the Eldar.

The Planet

Blake V is an agri-world that produces a vast amount of food to support the Cadian Sector of space. There is a very small inhabited area on the main continent, and the majority of food produced is harvested from edible varieties of sea weed and marine life from the enormous ocean mass.

Blake V has a single spaceport which also provides the majority of habitation for the populace. At various times in the planet’s history there have been cites built in the vicinity of the ancient spaceport, but one was destroyed during the Great Crusade by the Word Bearers legion as they entered the sector and the second was levelled by Abbaddon during a black crusade.

While small in population, Blake V is a key element of the logistics chain supporting the military activities in the Cadian Sector in any Imperial response to Chaos.

Background

Space Marine Brief

In the early stages of response to the Black Crusade, Blake V suddenly stops providing food to the galactic left flank of the Imperial force. In order to restart the supply, Commander Dante orders a detachment of Space Marines who are en route to the force and are travelling through the area to divert to the planet to investigate the anomaly and restart the supply of food. A small force of marines under command of a Captain is sent to the planet.

On arrival, the marines enter the spaceport unopposed and find the entire population missing or killed. There is no sign of the aggressor. Astropathic orders are to identify the cause of the problem and identify what the Imperium needs to do to restart the process.

Eldar Brief

The Farseers identify a future threat which can possibly be addressed by the manipulation of the Mon’Keigh travelling through the region. They identify that an attack on Blake V will divert a force of Space Marines from the main battle group to the region. This will then mean that the human force will travel via a different space lane to reach the conflict zone, which presents an opportunity to lead them into a separate conflict on Mannasian III that is in the interest of the craftworld.

The Seer Council orders an Autarch to take a small strike force to the region and eliminate the human colony on Blake V. When the marines arrive, they are to engage and delay them from being able to leave for as long as possible.

Rules

General

All battles will be of 400pts, no model with more than 2 wounds, no 2+ saves, no vehicle with total armour exceeding 33.

Battles will be conducted on a 36” by 36” square board. Terrain on the board will be required to match the respective planetary empires tile being contested.

Blake V consists of 11 tiles, including the spaceport.

Campaign

Each side selects 1000pts for the strike force. Only models from this force may then be used in the battles. This 1000pts does not include the two commanders (Captain and Autarch) as neither will take to the battlefield during the campaign for Blake V. Casualties are not cumulative, i.e. wrecking a Rhino out of the Marine inventory does not preclude it from participating in further combats.

Marines can only attack adjacent squares, starting from the spaceport. They cannot attack the same tile on two consecutive turns (if unsuccessful the first time). Eldar do not initiate combats, but only respond to the Marine advances.

The campaign lasts a maximum of ten rounds, with one combat per round. Successful combat is the sole determinant of tile ownership – no further roll as per the normal planetary empires rules is required.

Space Marine

Victory is achieved if the Marines gain control of six tiles other than the spaceport.

Marine force selection for the campaign is generic; they are not aware they are facing an Eldar threat.

Eldar

Victory is achieved if the Marines do not achieve control of six tiles within ten rounds of combat.

Eldar force selection is made specifically with the knowledge they are facing Marines via a hit and run campaign.